Taliban talks halted by Pakistan arrests: UN envoy

If you are wondering why Pakistan suddenly started playing good boy by arresting top Afghan taliban leaders, then here is your answer. Basically Pakistan doesn't want peace in Afghanistan and even if it wants, it wants to be a puppet regime which will be under the control of Pakistan a la old Afghan Taliban not like the Taliban which can speak for itself. Pakistan's perfidy never ceases to wonder me.

LONDON: The arrest of key Taliban leaders in Pakistan stopped a secret channel of communications with the United Nations, the former UN special representative to Afghanistan said Friday in a BBC interview.
Kai Eide, who stepped down from the post earlier this month, confirmed for the first time that he had been holding talks with senior Taliban figures and said they started around a year ago, AFP reported.

Face-to-face talks were held with “senior figures in the Taliban leadership” in Dubai and other locations, said the diplomat, adding he believed the movement's leader Mullah Omar had given the process the green light.

“Of course I met Taliban leaders during the time I was in Afghanistan,” the Norwegian diplomat told the broadcaster at his home outside Oslo.

“The first contact was probably last spring, then of course you moved into the election process where there was a lull in activity.”

Eide said that “communication picked up when the election process was over, and it continued to pick up until a certain moment a few weeks ago.”

He was referring to the arrest of senior Taliban commanders in Pakistan in recent weeks, a move which had been welcomed in the United States as a sign of the country's increasing willingness to track down Afghan militant leaders.

But the diplomat said the detentions had a “negative” effect on attempts to find a political solution to the eight-year-old Afghan war and suggested Pakistan had deliberately tried to undermine the negotiations.

He also said there were now many channels of communication with the Taliban, including with representatives of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Eide said these contacts were “in the early stages ... talks about talks”, adding it would take a long time before there was enough confidence between both sides to really move forward.

“The effect of the arrests, in total, certainly was negative on our possibilities to continue the political process that we saw as so necessary at that particular juncture,” he said.

“The Pakistanis did not play the role they should have played. They must have known about this,” said Eide.

“I don't believe these people were arrested by coincidence. They must have known who they were, what kind of role they were playing — and you see the result today.”

Pakistani officials have insisted the arrests were not aimed at wrecking the talks, the BBC reported.

Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured last month in the southern Pakastani city of Karachi, in what US media said was a joint operation with American spies.

Other senior Taliban commanders have also reportedly been captured in Pakistan recently.

Reports first emerged that Eide met Taliban figures after an international conference on Afghanistan in London in January.

Asked about the level of contact in the talks, Eide told the BBC: “We met senior figures in the Taliban leadership and we also met people who have the authority of the Quetta Shura to engage in that kind of discussion.”

The Quetta Shura is the name given to the Taliban leadership council, which takes its name from the city of Quetta where the senior members of the militia are thought to have been based.

Asked whether the leader of the Taliban movement Mullah Omar would have known about the talks, he said: “I find it unthinkable that such contact would take place without his knowledge and also without his acceptance.”

Eide stepped down from his position as United Nations representative in Afghanistan earlier this month after two years in the post which saw violence escalate and the UN role in fraud-tainted elections mired in controversy.

Pakistan didn;t arrest the Afghan Taliban for all these ten years and then suddenly it arrests because it sees that there is a negotiation going on between world powers and Afghan Taliban obviating any role for Pakistan. This led to some bad indigestion among Pakistani generals and went for the arrests to sabotage the negotiations. No wonder, damned if you do damned if you don't. Live with it a long as you want to play double games.

Thanks for posting this DD. IN fact I had posted, on both the forums and chatbox, reports from many reputable Indian analysts that these arrests by Pakistan are of Taliban who wish to renounce gun for talks.
Please also for future references not the timings of Rigi arrest, and recent recovery of explosive caches in Lahore.

WASHINGTON: The United States is “extremely gratified” that Pakistan has arrested key Taliban leaders, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said on Friday when asked to comment on a former UN official’s statement that the arrests had squandered Afghan peace efforts.

At a briefing at the State Department on the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue, Mr Holbrooke also indicated greater US interests in helping Pakistan overcome the grave energy crisis that has paralysed the Pakistani economy.

“These will be very broad and very complex” talks, said Mr Holbrooke when asked if the US would also consider Pakistan’s request for nuclear reactors for producing electricity.

Mr Holbrooke came to the briefing from the White House where he attended a meeting of senior US officials who will participate in the strategic dialogue with Pakistan.

He described the forthcoming talks as the most important ever between the two countries and also said that the level of participation would be higher than ever before.

Mr Holbrooke confirmed that Gen Ashfaq Kayani, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, Chairman of Joints Chiefs of Staff Adm Mike Mullen and other military officials will participate in the dialogue. Pakistan, he said, was also sending its director general for military operations. The DGMO usually focuses on India and his participation indicates that relations between the two neighbours may also figure prominently in the talks.

But one issue that got immediate attention emerged from a statement earlier on Friday by Kai Eide, the former UN special representative to Afghanistan. In an interview to BBC, he said that the arrest of key Taliban leaders in Pakistan blocked a secret channel of communications between the United Nations and the militant Afghan group.

“We are extremely gratified that Pakistan apprehended the number two (Taliban leader) and others,” said Mr Holbrooke when asked if the US supported the move. He said the arrests brought “more pressure” on the Taliban than before and the move was “good for the military operation” in Afghanistan.

Mr Holbrooke’s statement differs sharply from Mr Eide’s who claimed that the detentions had a “negative” effect on attempts to find a political solution to the eight-year-old Afghan war.

Well someone is talking a**. This is what Holbrooke has to say about the statement:

“We are extremely gratified that Pakistan apprehended the number two (Taliban leader) and others,” said Mr Holbrooke when asked if the US supported the move. He said the arrests brought “more pressure” on the Taliban than before and the move was “good for the military operation” in Afghanistan.

Mr Holbrooke’s statement differs sharply from Mr Eide’s who claimed that the detentions had a “negative” effect on attempts to find a political solution to the eight-year-old Afghan war.